"THE END IS NIGH" messengers

by Clam 3 Replies latest jw friends

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  Clam

  Those guys that walk around with sandwich boards that say THE END IS NIGH.

  I'm not sure if they're still around but I often wondered who they were and what they stood for. Were they mavericks, people with serious religious convictions or were they mentally ill? Did or do most major western cities have them?

  In my teens walking around London with an elder, he spotted one of these "messengers" and told me quite convincingly that the majority of them were apostates. By that he meant former Jehovah's Witnesses. I suppose the message is identical at least.

  Has anyone else been told this or was it a localised urban myth? Has anyone wondered about these prophets of doom or indeed had the opportunity to talk to one of them?
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  compound complex

  Hey Clam,

  I see a smiley face in the giant fire-ball hurtling toward the ham sandwich. Which goes to prove that we all see the same thing differently! So, now that I've "visited" you, will you visit my very lonely Beethoven. He's the only one on the board who cannot seem to get a b'day wish. Is it wrong to say happy birthday?

  CoCo
• 

  moggy lover

  I know that back in the 30s Rutherford encouraged this sort of activity among his followers. They would carry these sandwich boards advertising his various talks and they would parade down the main streets of most major cities in the world. In fact I have an old "Messenger" magazine of Aug 1939, and on pg 32 they have these pictures of the WT followers walking in proud formation carring these boards advertising JFR's talk "Government and Peace" The pictorial collage shows scenes from NY, LA, Chicago, Winnipeg, and London. The picture from NY has cyclists with these boards tied to the rear wheels. Damn! Now those were the days. Telling it like it is.

  However, whether these eventually became apostate and continued this activity seems a bit far fetched to me. If they did become "apostates" I would rather feel they would want to become invisible and fade into obscurity.

  Imagine meeting your boss in the main street with "The end is nigh - cause JFR sez so" sandwich board, and a couple of weeks later meeting him again with "The end is nigh - cause I sez so" sign. "Ah, Pentwhistle-Smythe, still at it then? Splendid, splendid. Give my car a good hose down tomorrow will you?, Ive got these bigwigs from company HQ coming in" "Certainly sir. Prepare to meet thy doom! The end is nigh!" etc.

  Cheers
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  A Paduan

  I thought they were jws or people like jws - fearful freaks sharing their spiritual food

  perhaps the new light on it from jehoober is that it's a bit uncooth thesedays - better keep it in the magazines